Cambridge-based Leaf on Tuesday announced its first institutional funding, a $20 million round from payments processing giant Heartland Payment Systems, to accelerate the growth of its small-business tablet.

The Android-based tablet, LeafPresenter, aims to serve as a central hub for small-business commerce — able to accept credit card payment, log other forms of payment and run apps such as payroll and inventory management.

Leaf also offers a cloud-based business analytics and management portal — which provides insights to small business owners from their data — as well as its own app store (now in beta) for apps that can be used on the LeafPresenter.

Leaf had been discussing a distribution deal with Heartland when "it became clear that we have much deeper synergies than simply selling together," founder and CEO Aron Schwarzkopf said in a news release.

Along with the investment, Heartland will sell Leaf through its more than 800 salespeople and will develop apps on the Leaf platform, according to the announcement.

Businesses in the Boston area which have been using Leaf include Voltage in Cambridge, the Curious George Store in Cambridge and Berry Line, which has four locations in Boston and Cambridge.

In an interview earlier this year, Schwarzkopf said the company has been expecting to expand from Boston to a dozen new geographic markets this year — and to be processing payments at an annualized rate of $500 million by the end of the year.

Using Leaf, business owners get quick access to data about how the business is doing, Schwarzkopf said, and save time by no longer having to count the money at the end of the day. The tablet also serves as an inventory tracking system and can be used to manage loyalty rewards.

"The small-business owner is a warrior," Schwarzkopf said. "We're helping the warrior have more time in their day."

In contrast to Square — which has been targeted for the "coffee shop or flea market guy" — Leaf matches the needs of numerous different types of businesses, including regional chains, he said.

Leaf released the second version of the LeafPresenter tablet in May. Founded in 2011, Leaf had previously raised $1 million in seed funding in April 2012, though the investors in the round weren't disclosed.

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